1. Angelica root extract (Angelica sinensis). Place a drop under mom's tongue and drink with a swallow of water.

2. Hot basil leaf (Ocimum basilicum) infusion: drink by the cupful.

3. A feverfew flower (Tanacetum parthenium) infusion can be made when labor starts. Add four teaspoons of the herb to a quart jar, fill with boiling water and cap. Allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, then refrigerate to keep fresh.

If a woman is hemorrhaging, follow proper protocols and seek appropriate medical attention. Transport to hospital if the herbs are having no effect.

Afterpains

1. Alleviate pain by having the mother relax and nurse regularly (this may hurt, but it will contract the uterus faster).

2. Try the following herbal extracts or combine them in an extract blend: cottonwood bark, black haw and cramp bark. This can be prepared as a tincture and given in doses of 20 drops two to three times a day.

When I went off of prozak, I boosted my overall nutrient intake with a product called Juice Plus. It is 17 fruits and vegetables in capsule form. I will post a link to it so you can check into it. It has a ton of 3rd Party independant research done on it.www.juiceplus.com/road/+tc15353

For anyone who feels like they need a little guidance through natural depression/axiety treatments I highly, highly recommend The Mood Cure. She recommends amino acids (I take tyrosine, 5-HTP, GABA and have taken small doses of niasotal [niacian & inosital]). She also recommends a very sensible, balanced diet rich in protein and fresh fruits and veggies. She describes, from a medical perspecitve, why we need these supplements and how to determine proper dosage.

It's worked wonders for both my dh and me. I was on Paxil briefly and it made my hair fall out.! Now I'm pregnant and I can keep taking this regime and not worry about the baby.

If you're suffering, please look into this. I waited so long, and it caused so much damage in my life.

I've listed on other threads some of the things I did for ppd, but this thread reminded me that I did try inositol, and it made me too groggy and sleepy, so I think I stopped it. I remember using lemon balm. I took this tiny little root someone gave me, and planted it. The midwife told me to talk to the plant and what to say, and I talked to the plant and said "I take this with respect, help me if you can". That lemon balm plant grew three feet tall and three feet wide! several times a day I would just rip a leaf off of the plant and sniff it. The smell of the lemon balm was calming.

i read all the posts of this thread and went to find some, and i can't believe the change, already! i am so suspicious because it can't be this easy. i had tried diet and exercise and noticed minor changes, but those things eventually just compounded the problem because finding the time to religiously get adequate aerobic exercise (for me it needs to be intense to take the "b**chies" away) or to be perfect about the diet created whole new headaches on top of those directly caused by the PPD.

now i feel this whole new charge, after ONE day. i was expecting it to take some time. i feel like doing things, not just because i am obligated, which made me angry and antsy. it isn't miraculously gone, but the intensity of my contempt has diminished and i feel some motivation. and truly, be it all in my head or be it measurable by diagnostic tests, something good has happened here. i BELIEVE i feel different, so i DO feel different. it's all the same thing in my world.

i do have a question though. how much of the 5-htp are you taking? i only noticed posters saying they were taking tyrosine or some other thing that is to do the same job as the 5-htp. IS anyone taking the 5-htp?

also, on a funny sidenote...has anyone else discovered what one of the other "interesting" uses of inositol powder is and WHY it's so expensive? allegedly it is used in the manufacture of meth and they jack the price up to keep junkies from buying it up. don't know for sure if it's true, but that's what the women at the store explained to me when i asked what other uses it had that people are paying so much for it.

other than sleepiness and diarrhea, has anyone had any negative experiences using this means of treatment?

I'm so glad you're feeling so much better! Here's what I'm taking, and I just visited my naturopath to confirm that this is all safe while pregnant, to which he responded, "There are no officials studies to verify the safety, and yes keep taking this since your symptoms are so severe."

500 mg tyrosine, 3 times a day
100 mg 5-htp, 3 times a day
500 mg (i think) GABA, only at bedtime, or in the case of a big anxiety attack

Today the doc reminded me to add:
calcium/magnesium, which calms you at night
B-complex, for the baby and also to clean out bad aminos that are produced when you're stressed

And reminded me to keep eating protein, all day long. A little harder since I've got m/s, but I bought some nuts and hummous today so maybe I can choke those down.

A friend (who has also been saved by 5-HTP) and I were IMing today about someone really needs to do a study on the levels of seratonin in postpartum women and how that relates to depression and anxiety. It's like we expect women to be frazzled after having a baby so we don't do anything to make them feel better. It may be normal, as my friend said, but it's unneccesary!

This is all really exciting, as I too have been struggling for months!

I've been trying to follow the thread (I'm still a little confused about how much of each to take). Wanted to note that I went to order some 5-HTP today, and it said on the bottle "not to be used if pregnant or lactating." Hmmm...

Katie, if you notice, EVERYTHING, except prenatal vitamins, says "not to be used if pregnant or lactating unless under the advice of a physician" or something to that effect. And the doctors recommend several medications as safe while pregnant and nursing. When I was pregnant, I noticed that quite literally every type of medication, vitamin, or herb had that label on it.

I've been following this hread for quite a while, and today, I finally got up the nerve to spend the money (we have a very tight budget, but I want to feel better SO badly), and I got Inositol, 5-htp and a B-complex. But I need a little help on the dosages. I can't find anyone RL who can help me. SO I'm hoping you mamas can. The Inositol says that the dosage is 1/4 of a tsp, which is teaspoon, right? And that is 700 mgs. SO, how many 1/4 tsps do I need to take to get to 12 Gs? Please, please help. I ended up just taking a tablespoon. Also, I saw one mama say that she takes 100 mgs of 5-htp 3 times a day. Is that pretty standard?

Thanks so much, I am so hoping this will work for me. I've felt so lousy for so long.

I MUST add an apology here....I had a REALLY bad day today, so yesterday likely had less to do with starting the treatment and more to do with it just being a better brain chemistry day. I had JUST started and only taken 100mg of the 5-htp, 4000mg of the Inositol and 1 B-complex. HIGHLY unlikely that it made a radical difference like that, as I can see today. I think it will take longer, like I think girlndocs and someone else said it did for them. I just wanted everyone to know, so as not to cause you to expect immediate results. That was kind of stupid of me to even think it. I apologize to any and all!:

I DID realize I need to talk to someone b/c DH does NOT understand, so on top of taking more of the goods, I also made and appointment. We'll see on Tuesday how things are going.

This is all really exciting, as I too have been struggling for months!

I've been trying to follow the thread (I'm still a little confused about how much of each to take). Wanted to note that I went to order some 5-HTP today, and it said on the bottle "not to be used if pregnant or lactating." Hmmm...

I used 5-HTP while nursing...prescribed by my naturopath. I wish I could remember the dosage, it was a long time ago.

Actually, the Inositol says consult your physician, but the 5-htp says do not use.

I talked to my naturopath about this and this was his take: he looked up the history of the drug and there is nothing in the literature that has any specific adverse connection to pregnancy (if there were they would state it on the bottle, with symptoms to look out for). The warning is there because years ago there was a bad batch imported and people got sick and a few died. So, technically, at one point in time it was harmful, so the warning is there, but it was circumstantial.

Of course, you have to make your own determination of the possible risks (none are specified in the literature). They haven't done any studies on pregnant women, so there's nothing to go on. If you aren't comfortable with 5-HTP, I suggest you try Tyrosine, as I've never seen any warnings on labels. It is the amino acid your body draws from food to make the precursors to seratonin, of which 5-HTP is one. So it's like you're just taking a step backwards in the process. I actually take both, which is why I checked with my naturopath, to make sure it wasn't too much, and he said it was fine, that my dosages is actually small and he was pleased I was getting that much relief from such a small dosage of each.

Again, I really, really suggest that everyone who wants to try this approach read The Mood Cure. It will help you figure out what you should be taking and how much and, just as importantly, make any nutritional modifications that will help you. The author contends that you shouldn't have to be on this for the rest of your life and if we address the nutrtional issues we should be able to recover eventually.

I just remembered something about my dosage. The healthfood store sold 50 mg of 5HTP which made me too groggy during the day to function. My doctor perscribed, and I had the compounding pharmacy make me a lower dose, and I think it might have been 12.5 mg twice a day. or 25 mg a day. Way lower than what your naturopath recommended. If you have trouble with the 5HTP, you could experiment with much lower doses.

Inositol was supposed to help you sleep right??? I remember trying that. It did nothing for me. What did help me sleep was 3000mg of Glycine at night or 6 500mg tablets (I am a little unsure of that dosage, but it was 6 capsules of the Glycine from Thorne Labs). LIFESAVER!!

I don't remember reading "The mood cure", but that sounds interesting. Is it new (less than 5 years ago?).

I remember reading books that helped like "Listening to your Hormones", "Screaming to be heard", one was "Postpartum Depression and Anxiety". There was some books about the thyroid, like "The Thyroid Connection". I took armour thyroid for a while. Estrogen, and progesterone, naturally compounded. Helped with the anxiety. The naturopath gave me sepia. But in the end it was the advice to keep things simple and sacred that helped the most with complete recovery. That, and sleeping for 6 months like a teenager.

I think it's really important to find a dosage that works for you. I actually felt more energized on this dosage of 100 mg 3x day! I got over my blues and was able to be very creative and decisive, very important in my work. I also take GABA at night, which makes me sleep very soundly, and sometimes during the day if my anxiety is very high. But my dh couldn't handle it during the day, made him too sleepy, and a friend said it helped his anxiety but made him weepy!

Just like pharmaceutical ADs affect people very differently, these supplements will have different effects on different people.

I think the Mood Cure came out in 2002 (that's the date on the hardbound edition). If I haven't said this already, the book is poorly edited and doesn't flow well. You have to read the whole thing and then go back and figure out how to create your personalized regimen.

I am curious-- has anyone has noticed improvement just by adding inositol-rich foods to their diet?

I found this study that analyzed amounts of inositol in a few hundred different foods here (it says you need to pay for the paper but I think I was able to access it for free because it's over 10 yrs old) It seems to indicate that there are over 450 mg just in a glass of grapefruit juice. I know many of you are taking 12 g per day- so that's still a lot of grapefruit juice ! But I'm just curious to see if anyone has taken this approach along with or instead of the inositol powder.

In the meantime, I think I'm going to browse through the tables in that study and do some careful meal planning this week. I figure it's worth a try.

If you aren't comfortable with 5-HTP, I suggest you try Tyrosine, as I've never seen any warnings on labels. It is the amino acid your body draws from food to make the precursors to seratonin, of which 5-HTP is one. So it's like you're just taking a step backwards in the process. I actually take both, which is why I checked with my naturopath, to make sure it wasn't too much, and he said it was fine, that my dosages is actually small and he was pleased I was getting that much relief from such a small dosage of each.

I take both too as part of a custom amino acid supplement. I was very low in both tryptophan and tyrosine, among several others. The supplementation changed my life.

Bestbirths -- you may not be low at all in tryptophan if it had that kind of effect on you. I wonder if you need it at all.

anyone notice really dry lips after taking inositol? I started yesterday by just taking 2 pills a day..my lips are so dry. I never had this problem here in the NW and I frequently use chapstick anyhow..i am having to use lanilan (sp) and they are still battling being dry. I am drinking water too....normally drink too much coffee and don't have this problem....

I just found this thread and read through it. I have been having extreme mood problems off and on since I was about 7 months pregnant. my DD is 3 months old now, and DS is almost 3 yr old. Mostly I have extreme irritability, having days where I just get so impatient with everything and everyone. I don't really get impatient with my baby, but everything else it seems. This just isn't fair for my DS to be screamed at (not just yelling, truly screaming!) on the really bad days. Anyhow I was having some bad days the last few days and was looking for natural remedies and found this thread. I went ahead and starting taking the Inositol powder and 5-HTP. Just started taking it yesterday....I notice a difference already. Very cool! I also went ahead and got the Mood Cure book that was mentioned. It will be nice to read that ... I just perused it so far and it looks good. I do have the side effect of diahrreah after taking it though...does this go away after a while?

KatSG, I really want to thank you for recommending the Mood Cure. I've read it and am starting to use it for both my husband and I. I scored high on all 4 questionairres and my husband scored high on 3 of them. It's just been 2 days and we are already noticing some changes. I think I will have to get tested to confirm pyroluria as well, as I answered yes to every single question on that...very interesting. Thanks so much!

For those of you that have been taking Inositol and 5-HTP, how long was it before you noticed a difference? This is my fifth day, and its been my best day in quite awhile.

That's great news. I have not taken the Inositol, but do take 5HTP as part of a custom blend of amino acids (so I'm taking others as well). I noticed a difference in 3 days and was a new person in 7 days. The amino acid company says that it may take as few as 3 but as much as 30. It probably depends on how deficient you are and how well the dose matches up.

I just wanted to say that after i read the mood cure book. I started following the diet plan and its helped me alot even my husband has noticed it. I dont have as much anxiety and PAttacks as i use too they are less and less.Matter of fact it been awhile since i had an attack, i cant even remember.